I'm trying to build a character who suffers a strange and inexplicable stigma that attracts misfortune to all the people around him. (In South America it's called "mufa"; in colloquial language, "moopha.") My idea was to make a cowardly kobold, more roguish than arcane but with maybe some levels as a sorcerer to make all potential builds apply.

In the Forgotten Realms, where I usually play, I was thinking of something like an unwilling Chosen of Beshaba, with both the good and bad aspects of that.

Luckstealer (RotW) has Curse of the Fatespurned and Curse of the Black Cloud which are similar to my idea, but I want it to affect friend and foe randomly, like a black cloud that's always present, and give the character a sort of "Mr. Magoo" kind of luck.

There is also Auspician (F&P), Fatespinner (CArc), and Fortune's friend (CScoundrel)... and even this Luck amateur build that I like.

Any ideas of how could I get closer to what I intend? How should I plan the 20 level progression? Which feats should I take — are luck feats useful? (Elements from Pathfinder are also usable for this build.)

@Brian He's kind of lucky but bad things happen to everyone else around. Imagine this PC returns from adventures like if nothing happened, and his companions do not return, or return without clothes, covered in mud or chicken feathers, or both .. even more serious, without an eye, broken arm, etc Look at this example
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apacayApr 5 '11 at 22:50

Interesting. How OK are you with casting spells at the start of the day to simulate a "bad luck aura?"
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Brian Ballsun-Stanton♦Apr 6 '11 at 0:47

@Brian Ballsun-Stanton: It's difficult to see another way out, isn't it? Remember that the idea is to affect friends and foe without discrimination.. @Aldaron, I'll take a look, but I don't think luck feats can get me the theme PC I'm looking for, maybe some of them are useful though
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apacayApr 7 '11 at 2:38

The common English word for this is Jinx. There are various classes & abilities with "Jinx" in the name in the Pathfinder SRD. I'll build an answer based on some of them.
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AdeptusSep 17 '14 at 3:48

6 Answers
6

Well I thought someone was going to propose a build with the classes i've exposed. That didn't happen, but heres what I've been collecting, and my idea:

The data:

Dragons of Eberron LOREDRAKE(Page 31)

Magic flows through every dragon’s
blood. The loredrake devotes her life
to harnessing this power and
understanding the mysteries of magic.
The most accomplished priests of the
Dragon Gods and students of the
draconic Prophecy are typically
loredrakes, and it is the dragons of
this path that uncovered the greatest
mysteries of arcane magic. Most
dragons have great respect for
loredrakes, but not all loredrakes are
noble creatures. Darkness abides in
magic along with light, and a
loredrake must decide whether he
answers the call of the Shadow.
Sovereigns: Aureon, The Shadow.
Benefit: Spellcraft is added to the
list of class skills. Once the dragon
has the ability to cast spells, his
effective sorcerer level is increased
by two. For example, an adult gold
loredrake cast spells as a 9th-level
sorcerer. In exchange, the dragon’s
racial Hit Dice are reduced to d10s.

Kobolds: Playing to Their Strengths -
Web Enhacement

Kobold Ritual

The Draconic Rite of Passage (see page 43
of Races of the Dragon) is a ritual
that grants any kobold who completes
the rite a 1st-level sorcerer
spell-like ability of their choice,
usable once per day. To recharge this
ability, a kobold must complete the
Searching for the Dragon meditation
each day, which equates to same amount
of time a sorcerer must spend
concentrating to replenish their
spells. The following ritual (and
associated feat) are extensions of the
Draconic Rite of Passage. Greater
Draconic Rite of Passage The Greater
Draconic Rite of Passage is a powerful
ritual handed down from dragons to
kobolds as a reward for their undying
loyalty. In the same way that
chromatic and metallic dragons gain
integrated levels of sorcerer
spellcasting as they age, this ritual
allows kobolds to awaken a small
amount of their own arcane might.
Prerequisites: Only kobolds of 6 Hit
Dice or more, sorcerer level 1st, who
have successfully completed the
Draconic Rite of Passage, and taken
Draconic Reservoir (1) can undergo the
Greater Draconic Rite of Passage. A
kobold requires no one else to perform
the rite; it is a solitary activity.
(1) See below for feat description.
Benefit: Upon completing this rite, a
kobold gains new spells per day and an
increase in caster level (and spells
known) as if also gaining one level in
the sorcerer class. The kobold does
not, however, gain any other benefit a
sorcerer would have gained (familiar
abilities, and so on). The benefit of
this ritual is automatically factored
into the 15 minutes that a kobold
sorcerer spends concentrating to ready
their daily allotment of spells. No
kobold can benefit from this rite more
than once. Time: A kobold who
undergoes this rite must first endure
nine days of fasting (the equivalent
of three days for a kobold in a region
above 40 degrees F). Immediately
thereafter, the kobold must succeed on
a DC 20 Concentration check to enter a
deep trance that lasts for 24 hours.
If the check fails, the rite must
begin a new. Cost: This rite requires
sacrificing a gem of at least 1,000 gp
in value. The kobold also permanently
loses 3 hit points upon completion of
the rite, the price of unlocking
latent draconic energy within their
soul.

Slight Build: The physical stature of
kobolds lets them function in many
ways as if they were one size category
smaller. Whenever a kobold is subject
to a size modifier or special size
modifier for an opposed check (such as
Hide), the kobold is treated as one
size smaller if doing so is
advantageous to the character. A
kobold is also considered to be one
size smaller when "squeezing" through
a restrictive space. A kobold can use
weapons designed for a creature one
size smaller without penalty. However,
the space and reach of a kobold remain
those of a creature of their actual
size. The benefits of this racial
trait stack with the effects of
powers, abilities, and spells that
change the subject's size category.

Hmm, if you want to inflict some generic bad luck to everyone around the person the fun stuff would have to be mostly a DM fiat because mechanical rules would not be able to encompass the wanted results right. If you just want a class based on bad luck then at low levels have some -1 luck modifiers to stuff like combat that affects everyone within a certain range, say like 5' at first level. Give the class very good saving throws because you must be hardy to survive all the bad luck you get. Finally allow the player to negate the penalty for himself and friends for a number of rounds every day. A rough mark up would be at 1st level 5' range bad luck field of -1 luck penalty to all within range for attack rolls, saves, and skill checks; has monk saves; and can negate penalty for himself and friends a number of rounds a day equal to level. Increase the radius every odd level and increase the penalty 3rd level and every 3 after. Maybe throw in some interesting luck related ability at 10th level.

Bad luck lingers and spreads. Anyone, friend or foe, who comes within 30 feet of a jinx suffers a -1 penalty to hit and -1 penalty to AC. A jinx cannot turn off radial curse, although it can be repressed in an antimagic field or by dispel magic.

Halflings with this racial trait gain the ability to curse another creature with bad luck at will as a standard action. This curse has a range of 30 feet, and you must be able to see the target and have line of effect to it. The target gets a Will saving throw to resist this jinx (DC = 10 + 1/2 your level + your Charisma modifier). If your target makes this saving throw, it is immune to your jinx ability for 24 hours. A jinxed creature takes a –1 penalty on all saving throws. This jinx lasts for 24 hours or until you attempt to use your jinx again. A jinx is a supernatural ability, is not mind-affecting, does not allow spell resistance, and can affect any kind of creature not immune to luck effects. This replaces halfling luck.

Note that this is targeted rather than affecting everyone.

I'm not going to post a full character progression, as there are too many options. But, depending on what type of character you want, you can qualify for Jinx PrC after 5 levels. And, using a Halfling with their Jinx racial trait seems very compatible with the concept.

There are loads tons of flaws, traits, and feats that grant "bad luck" using them all is painful and hilarious. Here is a build based off of the pathfinder(3.5) gnome jinx and internet flaws/feats that sounded too good to pass up. There are some holes, because I passed the character onto another, but you can rebuild and make it stronger.

First ask if your DM will allow action or hero points; racial traits; arcane casters; and regular traits: If YES prepare the character bomb shelter!

Second be a human and take the racial traits: "raised by other race" the race is Gnome; "Gnome jinx"
--> a Gnome jinx is almost a hexblade, but the bad luck comes from within.

3rd) Now add 8 flaws of bad luck, any that you can find on the net that add any -1
1) Bad luck, 2) worst luck, 3) No luck, 4)jinxed, etc...can't remember all of them off hand
Most don't have a benefit, but 2 add either 3 quricks(sp) or 1 feat(choose feat)

5th) Have your Deity/God be of travel/ luck/ thievery - basically any that allows you to state that you are rolling a pair of dice to take the best, instead of just one!
You should be able to roll about 4 to 6 dice, just by activating your deity/god. Then take the best pair, but take the worst roll out of the best pair

All together you have about 60-70 feet diameter of bad luck you can now pass to anyone at a penalty of -13 to -14

Then just to be really bad add on top of this abomination the 9th; 10th; 11th trait of:
9)"Born under a bad sign" which is -1 to all saves and -1 hp/lvl, but no auto death and nothing below 1 hp
the return of this is that you get a 4th, 9th, 15th lvl invocation that is not eldritch, unless you have a warlock class; then you can choose a +1d6 eldritch blast instead
10)"Corruption at level 3" --> this you will have to work with your DM to understand, but it states: "however the outcome of the roll is, it comes out at the least likely way"
Think of this as a "who lines is it anyway: scenes from a hat", but the more unlikely it is, the more the DM can apply an up to a -3 penalty as long as there is no auto-deaths or fails and the DM applies them where the negatives are likely to be.
11) "Wrath of God/Goddess/Deity/etc" First set this to "bad/strange luck" -1 to rolls no auto-death/fails, but you have managed to incurred someones ire

Finally add the feat: "Bad Mojo" from the fortune's fool - Not only do you get 3 more luck rolls, but you can spend those rolls to cast a curse or your own bad luck on to a target and that is full bad luck per effective character level!

This creates -19 to rolls (mostly saves) and about 9 times you can literally shoot your bad luck on any choice.

To start the jinx you need about a 4th level arcane caster(any type), can't have any lucky traits, and the fool part you need a 4th level too.

Sorry for the long wind, but I wish I could credit others for this crazy concoction and loved explaining as best as possible.

This would be more helpful with concrete details about the build, especially the names and sources of abilities. I'm not sure what you mean by "60-70 feet diameter of bad luck," and without sources I can't look it up. Also, it's not clear whether this bad luck affects the PC, allies, enemies, or all of the above.
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Bradd SzonyeApr 18 '13 at 1:46

Sounds like you're using a ton of homebrewed flaws from a variety of online sources, which seems pretty dubious to me. You should, at least, provide the links for those.
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KRyanMay 6 '13 at 21:27

Many sources were used, d&d wiki, regular wiki, 3.5 list and April fools' list, some home-brewed/reworded traits and flaws from around the internet, there is also pathfinder stuff in here, because pathfinder is 3.5 and the Hex-blade. The are 2 mistakes though; the calculation in the original diameter post. This is fixed and which will be explained in under the character explanation and the other is actually a liberal use of the Bad Mojo trait by having 1 level in thief. If you read the "no luck" racial trait and "Corruption" and "Strange" trait you will see that bad luck happens around the character, never to, but you can end all the bad luck by taking any
GOOD Luck __ <-- fill in the blank.

BTW a diameter is something that bisects a circle from the center outward to the circle itself, but since d&d is suppose to be 3 dimensional I converted the diameter to cubic feet

Level 4: Can’t cast yet Bestow Bad Luck -1 per -1 bad luck feature (including this spell) can be cast upon 1 person can only be cast once per level for a total of -24 (-26)points of bad luck (not including the AP / Hero Point spending)

To add for more fun:

Haunted/Family Cursed “Luck”: Trait -1 to all rolls (Never below 1 or auto fail) (brought by different ways by the ire of Family/ High Spirits/Etc.)